Sing Me A Lullaby
by Wolf-Maiden Mitsuki
Summary: Rewrite. Six years have passed and life has moved on - but then a child's cry for comfort brings the worlds of the Goblin King and our favorite Labyrinth-runner crashing back together again. Eventual J/S.
1. A Child's Hope

**Disclaimer:** I do not own the Labyrinth ©1986, nor do I own the lyrics to the song "As the World Falls Down". The song is the brainchild of the wonderful David Bowie.

This is a rewrite of an old creation, previously entitled "Sing Me a Lullaby", that I never ended up finishing. Recently, I dug it up again, thinking I'd have another go and see what came of it this time around.

* * *

**Chapter One**

A Child's Hope

* * *

Outside the two-story window, the wind howled through the trees. Rain pelted the window with enough force to make it rattle. The hour was late, dawn still several hours away. The darkness was broken only by the flashes of lightening that streaked through the sky. The insistent rainfall was punctuated by loud crashes and rumbles of thunder.

Toby Williams, lone occupant of the room, lay huddled underneath the covers of his Ninja Turtles bedspread. Clutched closed to his chest was his tattered stuffed bear, Lancelot, a gift from his half-sister Sarah long ago. Had he known his parents would have come and eased his fears, he might've called out to them. But the little boy, frightened as he was, could only whimper and shake under the protective watch of the four amphibian heroes.

Oh, how he wished with all his heart that all thunderstorms would go away!

They had frightened him since he was a toddler, or so his parents and his sister always told him. Every time there was a storm, they'd always said, he would cry and whine until someone picked him up and sang to him.

Why a song, and not a story or a blanket, or even a hug and kiss? Well, that was something no one knew – not even Toby.

A sharp clash of thunder overhead and Toby shouted with fear, but no one heard him. The sound of his cry was drowned out by the thunder itself. No one ever heard him scream it seemed, except his sister, Sarah, when she'd been home. But now she was gone to college, far away in New York. She couldn't hear him, and so no one came. Clutching Lancelot all the harder, Toby began to cry.

If only there was someone who cared enough to come and sing.

Even if he could've cried loud enough for his parents to hear him, they wouldn't sing. They never sang to him. They said that he was getting too old to be so frightened of thunderstorms. They said it was time for him to grow up and learn to face his fears instead of trying to wish them away.

He was nearly seven, they would say, a boy too old to be sung to like a toddler. But the only thing Toby felt brave enough to face was the thought that his parents didn't love him enough to sing. Sarah would've sung to him, but he never saw her anymore.

"I wish someone would sing to me." The small, blond boy whispered tearfully to his teddy bear. "I wish they would make the storm go away..."

Lancelot, being as scared as Toby was, didn't answer. The storm continued to rage.

And so Toby curled up even more in the stuffy darkness under the covers, sniffling and hoping with a child's hope that someone would hear his wish and come.

* * *

**+0+**

* * *

Deep in the heart of a sentient Labyrinth, in the comfort and clamminess of his palace, the Goblin King stirred a little in a wingback chair pulled close to the glow of a fireplace. Opening mismatched eyes, the monarch came to himself slowly and glanced around the massive room to get his bearings. Something rustled in his lap and glancing down, he saw the spine of the old, dusty tome he'd been browsing through a few moments earlier.

He picked up the book and then laid it aside. Nothing else stirred in the gloom of the bedchamber. The flaxen-haired man frowned, a line pulling his arched brows downward. Had he not heard one of the dirt-eating goblins he was in charge of call out in the darkness?

He waited, staring into the fireplace and listening, but he heard nothing more. The fire crackled, sparks flying mildly around the corners of the ruddy blaze. Leaning into the back of his chair once more, the monarch harrumphed and reached out to retrieve his book. Before his fingers touched the binding, however, the sensation of someone calling out pulled at his consciousness again.

His fingers stopped in midair. The voice he heard was small, wavering. The voice of a child – a small, frightened boy called out. Jareth (for that was the name of this King) listened intently and tried to make out the words. It was difficult at first, as though the voice came from far, far away – almost beyond his ability to discern – but he managed somehow. Slowly, the words formed in his mind.

_"_..._I wish someone would sing to me...I wish they would make the storm go away..."_

The voice was broken with sobs, the tone desperate. But who in the blazes was it?

Puzzled and bit concerned, the Goblin King rose. Forgetting about his book or the late hour, the slender man called forth a bit of magic and manifested a crystal with a flick of the wrist and whispered spell. The crystal looked like glass, gleaming and sparkling in the firelight.

"Show me the one who cries out for a song." The monarch breathed to the crystal. As if by its own volition, the crystal began to spin and glow.

The moments passed, the glow and the spinning increased. The orb of glass and magic lifted from his fingertips an instant later and hovered in front of his face. An image started to appear within the crystal, blurry and out of focus as first. He whispered more spell words and the image began to clear.

He saw a bedroom, a child's bedroom. A bed, covered with patterns of armed turtles and a cityscape came into view. A large bulge in the middle of the bed moved and shuddered, a child sobbed. Then the child came into view, face lit with soft light, as though the crystal itself had slipped beneath the covering of blankets.

Jareth's eyes widened as he beheld the face of the child. It was a boy, fair-haired, with a face red and streaked with tears. The boy was older than Jareth remembered, but one that he nevertheless recognized. Jareth's heart ached as he remembered.

A babe dressed in striped jammies, crying in a crib. A teenage girl, childish and willful, wishing the child away, and then himself – loving the girl, confronting the girl – making a deal with the girl that she might win back the brother she so thoughtlessly wished away.

In the depths of Jareth's heart, bittersweet emotion joined the tender ache. The crystal was dissolved, no longer needed. Without another moment's delay, the Goblin King sank and melted into the form of a great tawny owl, and flew from the window of his bedchamber into the dark night.

The rhythm of his wings beat against the air and took him steadily towards the Barrier between the Underground and the Realm of Mortals. As he flew, a thought crossed his mind, borne from feelings that had lain dormant for six years.

_Toby, it appears you need me once again. I wonder what your naughty sister has gone and done this time._

* * *

**+0+**

* * *

Under the protective barrier of his blanket, the six-year old was facing a rather difficult decision. Scared as he still was, loud and persistent as the storm was, he couldn't stay in his cocoon of darkness anymore. He was starting to sweat and his tears had caused him to have difficulty breathing. His nose was now stopped-up. Even Lancelot looked as miserable as he felt.

He was going to have to come out from under the covers. As if realizing the magnitude of his decision, another clap of thunder rattled the window pane, making Toby whimper and squeeze his bear all the tighter. He would come out for a minute. That was all...just enough to breathe a little and then he'd go back.

With a little nod of his head and a sniffle, Toby decided that was what he would do. Taking a moment to push sticky, drying tears from his cheeks, he took hold of the blanket's edge. Licking his lips in nervousness, he closed his eyes. In one sudden motion, he jerked the covers down to chest level. Cool air hit his face and he inhaled, though he hiccupped a little as he did.

The downy covers now gone, he could hear the rain and the thunder more clearly. He kept his eyes closed though, afraid for one instant that he might open them and see a monster had crept in while he was hidden. But when nothing growled or grabbed him after a few seconds, slowly he opened his eyes again. Rain hit the window like a thousand tiny knuckles on the glass, but something else drew the boy's eye.

There was a large bird outside his window, with large eyes and beige-brown feathers. It watched him from a nearby tree limb, swayed with every movement of the wind through the trees. A ghost-like form in boughs green as could be.

For a brief moment, Toby felt fear jumped in his throat again, closing it up. The owl (as it looked like the bird in the Winnie-the Pooh books his mother had read to him when he was little), saw him watching. It opened its beak, hooting something at him. The sound was nearly covered up by the sound of the rain, but Toby heard it. It was an eerie sound.

Rubbing his eyes, curiosity and wonder replacing what fear remained, Toby slowly got out of bed. He took a step or two towards the window, but stopped at the last minute to get Lancelot. Then, with faithful bear companion in hand, he went to the window. A flash of lightening filled the sky just then, blinding Toby and startling him so badly he fell onto his bottom on the floor.

When he could open his eyes and looked outside again, the owl had moved. It perched just outside the window, on the bit of roof. Toby watched as the bird pecked at the window, large cold eyes staring at him. It pecked again and in an instant, Toby realized the bird must want in.

_He hates storms too_, Toby reasoned, standing up._ I don't blame him._

He loosened his grip on the teddy bear ever so slightly, and reached for the window latch. To push the window up would take more effort, but Toby wasn't dumb. He knew how to do it. He carefully put Lancelot down on his toy box, and then climbed on himself so that he could more easily reach the window. With effort, he grabbed the window pane and pushed it up. Damp wind and rain flew into the window and wet his face. He shuddered with the shock of it. A blur of motion and feathers came with it, flying over his head and into the room behind him.

With a whimper and a grunt of effort, Toby pushed down the window again. It squealed a little on old tracking. When the child turned, desiring to see this great creature that he'd valiantly saved from the storm, he saw no bird at all. A man stood in the middle of Toby's room; a tall man who was saying bad words underneath his breath as he shook the rain from his wild, white-blond hair and strange clothing.

Not knowing the man, wondering where the tawny owl had gone, Toby felt fear rising up again twice as strong as before. Snatching up Lancelot from beside him on the toy box, Toby clutched the bear to his chest.

"W-who are you?" He demanded of the strange man, voice quivering. "What are you doing in my r-room?"

* * *

**+0+**

* * *

Aggravation was not an emotion strange to the ruler of the vast Labyrinth. It was no stranger at present either, especially since Jareth was now nearly soaked to the bone from sitting on a branch in the middle of a bloody rainstorm waiting for a child to open a window for him. Irritation so dominated the Goblin King's disposition at the moment that he momentarily forgot the reason for his arrival at all and let a string of curses leave his lips as he shook the excess water from his hair and clothing.

"W-Who are you?" quivered a child's voice. "What are you doing in my r-room?"

The cursing stopped as Jareth turned to regard the child in question. The boy in front of him was truly the boy from the crystal, around age six or seven, though instead of ninja turtles and teddy bears, the boy sported beads of rain from his grand entrance through the window. A stab of pride filled the Goblin King's chest as he took in the sight of the child he'd not seen since infancy. Memories of dancing about his throne room with the boy rose in his mind.

A smile, rare and genuine, graced the monarch's lips.

"You've grown," Jareth said, turning fully and taking a step in Toby's direction. "It's good to see you again, my boy."

Toby's eyes widened as Jareth approached and a look of panic took over his face. Glancing around frantically, the boy's eyes came to rest on a nearby, foam-covered baseball bat. No doubt acting on instinct, Toby lunged for the bat and grabbed it. Brandishing it fearfully, Toby turned on him.

"G-get back!" he cried, looking towards the door. "I'll call Daddy. Just stay away!"

Unable to help himself, Jareth threw back his head and laughed. The boy looked crestfallen a moment, but stood his ground. The king of the Labyrinth tilted his head to the side and regarded the boy with amusement.

"What do you expect to do with that, Toby?" he asked kindly, but did not approach any further. "Don't tell me you've forgotten your dear Uncle Jareth..."

"You're not my uncle." The boy quipped, but lowered the bat. "How d'you know my name?"

"I know a lot more than you think. I know your sister, Sarah, in fact." A stab of something painful flitted through Jareth's mind. After a moment, he cleared his throat. "And how, might I ask, is dear sister lately? Still about, performing in plays is she?"

At the mention of his sister, something in Toby's demeanor changed. The bat lowered entirely and his reply was much nicer than before.

"She's far away. Someplace called 'New York'." Toby answered, looking at the floor. "I miss her."

"Is she now?"

The boy nodded, and then looked towards the window. The Goblin King's eyes followed Toby's line of sight. The worn, faded teddy bear from the crystal lay on its side on the floor in front of the window. A child sighed, dropping the baseball bat and walking over to pick up his teddy. Little arms squeezed the bear tightly.

"Storms are scary." The boy said. "Sarah used to sing when I was scared, but she's gone now. Mommy and Dad say I'm too old to have songs."

"Nonsense," Jareth stated. "No one is too old for songs. Would you like me to sing one for you, my boy?"

Toby looked up from the floor, his brow scrunched up. "Um, okay. Will the storm go away?"

"It will." The monarch reassured the child. "Now into bed with you...take your teddy."

Jareth waited until the boy had gotten comfortable before settling on the window seat. The window seat was a bit damp, but then, so was he. He paid the moisture no mind as he leaned comfortably against the wall and lay one leg across the seat. The Goblin King stared out the window, pondering the storm outside, and remembered a time long ago when something similar raged inside his own heart. Thus, remembering, he began to sing:

"_...There's such a sad love_

_Deep in your eyes, a kind of pale jewel_

_Opened and closed within your eyes_

_I'll place the sky within your eyes..."_

_._

"_...There's such a fooled heart,_

_Beating so fast, in search of new dreams,_

_A love that will last within your heart_

_I'll place the moon within your heart..."_

_._

"_...I'll paint you mornings of gold_

_I'll spin you Valentine evenings_

_Though we're strangers 'til now_

_We're choosing the path between the stars_

_I'll lay my love between the stars..."_

_._

"_...As the pain sweeps through_

_It makes no sense to you_

_Every thrill is gone_

_Wasn't too much fun at all_

_But I'll be there for you_

_As the world falls down_

_As the world falls down..."_

Outside the window, the storm seemed to worsen momentarily. The wind rattled the windows. Claps of thunder banged and roared, causing the little boy to flinch and jump. Flashes of lightening lit the room like daylight, but Jareth continued to sing and Toby quieted. The song was sad, but beautiful, and as the song came to an end, the storm just stopped.

The roaring silenced, the flashing retreated, and though the rain still fell, it was softer...like the pitter-pat of tiny feet on the glass. Closing his eyes momentarily, Jareth let the effects of the song leave him before he chanced a glance at the boy on the bed.

Memories, all of them tainted with sadness and regret, threatened to overtake him. He managed to resist the emotions with effort, before finally looking over at his charge. Toby was sitting quite still, half-covered with his blankets.

One of the boy's hands worried the leg of his bear, but there was no look of sadness upon his face. The boy was smiling – a tiny smile – as if he knew something that Jareth did not.

"Sarah sings that song." The boy said, looking shy. "Did you teach it to her?"

Toby couldn't know it, but the words pierced Jareth's chest like a lance.


	2. Heart's Desire

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Labyrinth © 1986 or the characters found therein. You know this.

Thank you to all the wonderful people who reviewed, favorite-d, and followed after reading the first chapter: **Guest, bandchildforever, kokoronagomu, Lylabeth1, YuYuHakushoObsessor, Lady Gaily, Clairelc, tukeball, kagome666, AngelaGoddess, The ChronicLiar, Silver Rose514, Suuki-Aldrea, **and** wendy darling88**.

Your interest and support are greatly appreciated! Please enjoy this next chapter.

* * *

**Chapter Two**

Heart's Desire

* * *

Far to the North, on the campus of the finest Theatre Arts School that New York had to offer, Sarah Williams sat on her bed, worrying a stub of a pencil between her teeth. A stack of papers lay in her lap, on a makeshift table consisting of a pillow and a plastic serving tray she'd lifted from the college cafeteria. Brow knitting together in concentration, she hurried to finish the first draft of her drama theory essay.

She was in the process of writing when the door of her dorm room burst open, revealing the laughing figure of her dorm mate and another girl from down the hall. The sudden noise startled Sarah, causing her hand to jerk involuntarily. The result was a long, dark mark that drifted halfway up the page she'd been working on.

"Damn." She cursed, casting an annoyed look at her dorm mate.

Valerie said something to the girl behind her, who laughed before moving on down the hallway. Sarah watched as Valerie pushed the door open more fully with one hip while trying to juggled her denim backpack, her Starbucks coffee, school books, and box of donuts. The girl looked tired and ruffled, though her face was still alight with mirth. That is, until she saw the look Sarah was leveling at her.

"Oh sorry, Sarah...I didn't mean to scare you." She said, laughing sheepishly. "Toni and I thought we'd get something to snack on. My god, that girl is hilarious...seriously she should be, like, a stand-up comedienne or something!"

She hoisted both books and box of donuts in her arms. With a sigh and a shake of her head, Sarah set aside her makeshift table and got off the bed. Valerie took two steps forward and used an outstretched foot to close the door behind her. As Sarah approached, she jostled her books around so that she could offer Sarah the box of donuts.

"Want some?" She asked, smiling. "You look like you need it."

"I've had my share of donuts today already, thanks." Sarah replied, though she took the box anyway just so that Valerie wouldn't risk dropping them. "If you really want to help, you'll pull out that electric typewriter your parents bought you and let me use it to type up this stupid essay."

"Oh, you know I don't know how to operate that thing." The other girl said, rolling her eyes and following Sarah towards the other side of the room. "Besides, you know the instructor wants them handwritten."

Sarah put the box of donuts on the small table pushed against the wall between their beds while Valerie unburdened herself further by dropping her backpack on the floor near her bed. It hit with a dull thud. Valerie sighed, taking a sip of her coffee, before settling on her bed.

Her good deed done for the day, Sarah returned to her bed and her unfinished essay. There she pulled her 'table' back on to her lap and frantically tried to erase the black mark her friend's impromptu entrance had caused.

"Oh, who cares what that old woman wants?" Sarah remarked, frowning when the paper beneath her eraser tore. "Shit...now I'm gonna have to rewrite this thing for the fiftieth time."

"Huh, sorry again...I didn't mean to mess you up. I know how hard you've been working on that thing. You can use that typewriter if you want to...you'll have to figure it out though." This time Valerie's voice was laced with apology.

Sarah didn't look up. She was gathering more paper so that she could begin her rewrite...again. "If this doesn't work, Val, I'm willing to try anything."

The other girl didn't speak for a few minutes, having grabbed for the box of pastries as soon as she'd settled more comfortably on her bed. When Valerie's hand emerged, it held a powdered donut, most likely filled with raspberry filling – her favorite. Catching sight of her dorm mate eating the round confection with gusto, she smiled.

"So, Starbucks and donuts..." Sarah inquired, knowing the other girl needed little incentive to speak. Valerie was like that, unlike Sarah. "I take it you had a hard day?"

"Girl, you don't even know the half of it!" Valerie started. "You know Professor Stilwell right? Well, he decided to give me and the other students a pop quiz today on color theory. I swear that thing was, like, fifty questions long. He only gave us fifteen minutes to do it. I mean, can you even believe that guy?"

Sarah shook her head and was about to mutter a negative when Valerie continued in a rush:

"And then, I was late to my Business class and Mrs. Roberts has to be, like, an attendance Nazi or something. On top of that, Starbucks was out of mocha decaf latte mix or whatever and I had to get a French Vanilla espresso. Not to mention I'm stressed out about the swatches I've got to pick out for that Design project I have to do, but when I went to the fabric store it was closed."

"So you stopped by Dunkin' Donuts instead?" Sarah supplied, smiling wider than before. Valerie nodded, muttering an affirmative around a mouthful of donut. "Exactly...and now my diet is ruined!" She paused long enough to swallow. "So, how was your day?"

Sarah looked up from her newest copy of her essay and shrugged.

"Well, this essay I have to do on drama theory is really getting on my nerves." She said, debating mentally on whether or not to grab a donut anyway. "Miss Johannes wants the stupid thing to be five pages long. How am I supposed to write five pages on the theory of theatre arts and how it relates to me?"

Without comment, Valerie took another bite of her donut. Powdered sugar fell onto her lap and she looked at it with disdain, muttering under her breath. "Man, this shirt is supposed to be dry clean only…"

"Oh, and I got a call from home today."

Valerie looked up from her inspection of her shirt and looked interested at last. "Really? That's pretty cool. How are the folks doing? And your brother, he been doing okay?"

Sarah nodded, smiling as she thought of Toby. "Oh, the usual things…he hates school, wants more dessert at dinner, and wishes that I was home. As for my dad and Karen, they're tired of work and hope they'll get lucky and win the lottery soon. Makes me wish that I could go home more often, you know?"

"Not me, sister. I can't tell you how great it is being on my own..."

And just like that, Valerie launched into another monologue about the phone call she'd received from her mother the day before. Sarah just shook her head and indicated the box of donuts. Without missing a beat, Valerie grabbed the box and handed it across the room to Sarah. Sarah took a chocolate-covered donut from the box and leaned against the wall.

She only half-listened to Valerie's story though, as most of her attention was focused inward. Having mentioned Toby, she found herself wondering just what the little guy was doing.

* * *

**+0+**

* * *

Toby fought a yawn and his eyes felt heavy, but he fought it best he could. The owl man, Jareth, was quiet where he sat on the window seat, not looking at him. The boy continued to play with his bear's leg, using it as a distraction from being tired. He waited, but the man never answered his question. So he asked again.

"Well, did ya?" Toby repeated.

"Toby, I think perhaps it's time for bed," the man said, voice sounding funny. "You're tired and so am I. The storms gone, you shouldn't be frightened any longer."

The blond man moved around on the window seat and stood up. Toby felt disappointment fill him. He pouted.

"Aw, don't go! Tell me the truth," he whined. "Nobody tells me nothing."

"No." Jareth said sharply, making Toby jump a little. "I didn't teach your sister that song." Toby looked down, hurt. There was a sigh and the boy chanced a peek at Jareth. He wasn't looking at him; instead the man was rubbing his eyes. To Toby, it looked like the man was the one who needed a nap.

"I sang it to her once...a long time ago." The man finally said, this time nicer than before. "Now go to sleep, child, your parents will be angry if you don't get any rest tonight."

"I'm not sleepy..." Toby argued. "Sing to me again."

"No, one song is quite enough for now." Jareth said, walking over towards the bed. Toby had to look up because the man was so tall. "Go to sleep."

"Then tell me a story," Toby said, deciding to try what he tried on his parents. Even they wouldn't say no to a story before bed. "I promise to sleep after a story...please?"

The man sighed again. "Very well...one story and a short one, then off to bed with you. Now lie down and be quiet."

Toby smiled and did as the man asked. After all, it wasn't often he got a song and a story in the same night. This time when he felt a yawn coming, he didn't stop it. He yawned so big and so wide, it felt like his face was splitting in two. Jareth sat down on the foot of the bed and Toby scooted over to make room. Then something magical happened, a glass ball appeared in the man's hand, spinning hypnotically. In the dim room, the ball glowed softly.

"Wow!" Toby gasped, eyes growing in surprise. He tried to touch the spinning orb, but the man, Jareth, held the object just out of his reach. Toby tried again and was denied a second time. "What's that?"

"It's a crystal." Jareth replied, twisting his hand this way and that, making the balls spin and dance. Light glinted on its shiny surface. "Nothing more and I will use it to tell you a story."

"How'd you do that?"

"That's my secret...now do you want a story or not?"

Crestfallen, Toby stopped trying to touch the crystal and lay back down again.

"Once upon a time," the man began, his voice taking on a soft, hypnotic quality. Toby couldn't help but relax. His eyes watched the crystal as it danced and spun on the fingers of the owl man. "...there was a young girl who lived in a land far away. And though she was intelligent and beautiful, there was a willful nature within the girl that caused her to take much of her life for granted."

"What does 'for granted' mean?" Toby interrupted. Jareth glanced at him, and then transferred the crystal to his other hand, the one closest to Toby. Inside the crystal, an image appeared. It was a girl, with long dark hair, but her back was turned and Toby couldn't see her face.

"To take something for granted, my boy," the man explained, "is to not recognize or see what something is worth. This girl had a good home and a family that loved her, but she could not see it. She always wished she was somewhere else, with someone else...never happy with what she was given, which was quite a lot..."

"Oh," Toby said. "Mommy would call her selfish."

"She was." The man agreed. "But there is more to the story, now be quiet and listen."

"...Now this girl had another sibling...a brother, you see...and was so certain that her parents loved their other child more, that she decided to do something quite selfish indeed. She went into a dark land, filled with danger and magic, and pleaded with the king of that land to do something about it."

"But," Toby asked, frowning. "Did the girl's mommy and daddy really love her less than the other?"

The owl man shook his head, his wild white-blond hair moving slightly. "No, they did not. A good parent always loves their children the same amount, but the girl was too blind to see that."

"That's so sad." Toby commented, rested his head on his pillow again. "What happened next?"

In the crystal, the scene changed and Toby saw a white palace in the middle of a large maze. He saw the girl again, but her face was in shadow. The man on the throne was tall, but Toby couldn't see his face either...but all around the throne were creatures that looked misshapen and scary. Unconsciously, Toby took hold of Lancelot and pulled the bear to his chest.

"She came to the king, who was mighty and powerful," Jareth continued, in the same quiet voice as before, "...and begged him to take her brother away, so that everyone would forget he existed. The king could see what the problem truly was, but knew the girl was too foolish to understand."

Toby's eyes grew heavier still and it seemed that the more he fought the sleepiness, the more sleepy he felt. All the while, the man's story continued.

"And so she brought forth her request, and because he had watched the girl grow into a beautiful young woman and had fallen in love with her, he decided that he would grant her heart's desire."

In his mind, he saw the girl and imagined a dark land filled with monsters and fog and scary things. He saw the throne room and the white castle, and the king who loved the girl and wanted to make her happy.

"So the boy disappeared from the girl's home and everyone forgot his existence. At first, the girl was happy to know that she was an only child again, for what is better than all a parent's attention and love? But though everyone else forgot the boy, the girl could not and soon felt very guilty for doing such a bad thing..."

"What about...the king?" Toby asked, heavy-lidded. His voice sounded strange to him, far away. "What about the boy?"

The owl man had an answer, as he always seemed to. "The king wanted to teach the girl a lesson, you see. So he let her feel her guilt a while before giving her a chance to save her brother. But to do that she would have to face untold dangers and much hardship..."

A yawn overtook Toby and his eyes closed. The owl man smiled, letting the words hang in the air a moment as he watched the small child give in to sleep.

"I wish-" Toby murmured absently, but another yawn came and split his sentence in two. "- Sarah was here."

* * *

**+0+**

* * *

The water coming from the faucet in the bathroom was lukewarm at best, but after all the showers and toiletry routines of the other girls, Sarah was hardly surprised. About an hour before, she'd given up on the rewrite of her essay and decided to go to bed. Tomorrow was another day and she could finish rewriting it in the morning. The bathroom was deserted at this time of night and Sarah relished the privacy as she went about brushing and flossing her teeth, then seeing to her face.

The climate in New York was doing a number on her skin. With all the cold, wind, and snow, Sarah was hard-put to keep her skin looking its best. The stress of her classes and the heavy make-up she was forced to wear on stage wasn't helping either.

Her dirty clothes lay in a small pile at her feet and Sarah was wrapped in a green terry-cloth robe that Karen had bought for her before she'd left for school. Underneath it, she was dressed in an oversized sleep shirt and some matching slippers.

Sarah splashed her face a couple of times with water, making sure to remove all the cleanser from her skin. Eyes closed, she fumbled a little with the small towel she'd draped over her shoulder before managing to pat her face dry once more. Opening her eyes, she looked at her reflection...taking note of the areas that needed the most moisture.

The face she saw in the mirror was bedecked here and there, mostly over her nose, with light brown freckles. Her face had lost some of its roundedness and she'd grown a few inches since high school. Now her face was more tapered towards the chin, and her cheekbones stood out a bit more as well. Her eyes, hazel instead of green, were much less dreamy than before as well. A woman was starting immerge behind those eyes now, the soul less naïve than when she'd been younger.

Moving away from home would do that to a person.

Rummaging in one roomy pocket of her robe, Sarah found the small container of moisturizer she'd been looking for and pulled it out. She dabbed a bit onto the tips of her fingers and applied it as evenly as she could to the dry areas of her face. When she was satisfied, she dropped the moisturizer into her pocket again, gathered her small pile of clothes and started towards the door of the bathroom, hitting the light switch as she went.

Tomorrow, she knew, was going to be another busy day. Classes began at eight o'clock and went to twelve, and then it was off to the library or to her dorm room for a bit of homework until two. A bite to eat and three hours later, it was back to her dorm room to gather clothes up for laundry and then more homework while she waited at the Laundromat for her clothes to get finished.

Sarah sighed as she entered the hallway and started back towards the room she shared with Valerie. It was late, much later than she'd meant to stay up...but Valerie had spent much of the time after she'd returned home talking. Sarah had wanted a break from her paper and indulged her chatty roommate, much to the detriment of her schedule.

The halls were deserted this time of night. Most of the other people on Sarah and Valerie's floor had already visited the bathrooms. She was probably one of the few still up and so she had the corridor to herself when the sensation first washed over her. Shivering, Sarah clutched her dirty clothes a little closer in an effort to stave off the strange chill. Her door lay at the end of the hall, she was nearly there now.

The sensation grew with each step, however, and on top of the strange chill Sarah began feeling touches of vertigo. She stopped walking and dropped a couple of articles of clothing as she reached out to brace herself against the wall of the corridor. The chills and the dizziness worsened and Sarah staggered. Panic seized her heart and she closed her eyes tightly, wondering what was wrong with her. She took another step and faltered. As she started to fall, Sarah groped for anything in an effort to catch herself. Her surroundings dissolved in a haze of white. She never felt the impact with the floor.

The floor had disappeared. And so had she.


End file.
